South Carolina

Consistent efforts have been made to legalize sports betting in South Carolina, but those efforts have yet to produce any results. On the bright side, attempts to pass a sports betting bill in the Palmetto State don’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.

If residents or tourists of South Carolina want to do something remotely similar to sports betting, they have only one option: daily fantasy sports apps. DFS products are neither legal nor illegal in the state, so they operate in a gray area that allows them to be unregulated and provide customers in SC with contests.

Two of the biggest DFS apps on the market, PrizePicks and Underdog, are available for download on iOS and Android devices in the Palmetto State. When it comes to gambling-related products, though, the buck ends at DFS products. Betting on horse racing is also not legal in the state, so racebooks like TVG aren’t available.

Online sports betting in The Palmetto State

Motivation is a key factor in getting a sports betting bill passed, and lawmakers in South Carolina certainly seem motivated. While sports betting remains illegal in the Palmetto State along with all other forms of gambling, SC has seen a sports betting bill be introduced every year since PASPA was overturned in 2018.

At times, other states that have attempted to legalize sports betting have run into the issue of the House disagreeing with the Senate on the matter or vice versa, but there are members of both parties who have supported the legalization.

In 2022, HB 5277 had bipartisan support, yet it became another bill or resolution that has died in committee since 2019. Just recently, in 2023, Rep. Chris Murphy introduced and sponsored HB 3749. This bill would allow eight operators to enter the market and set the minimum gambling age in the state at 18. Currently, the bill is waiting to be reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee.

This committee has a laundry list of bills that are pending review, so the timeline for discussing HB 3749 is still up in the air.

Of course, it does not help that the man at the top of the state’s government, Gov. Henry McCaster, is against the idea of legalized gambling in the state. He claims it is against the state’s values. Even with this opposition, lawmakers in the state, like Rep. Chris Murphy, seem to remain optimistic.

Sports betting & gambling legislation in SC

One of the toughest hurdles for lawmakers in support of legalized gambling to jump over is the fact that South Carolina does not have an expansive gambling landscape already established. With no retail casinos in operation in SC or even a state lottery, lawmakers would need to create a governing body to hand out the eight licenses they discussed in HB 3749.

Aside from the fact that having no retail betting locations limits sports betting to just mobile betting apps, it also means that iGaming is unlikely to join the legal gambling landscape in SC. If iGaming is not something that could be added to the current sports betting bill being discussed, then it could be quite a while before residents have access to online casinos or online poker.

Most recent updates from the SC sports betting & gambling scene

• May 17, 2024: With a series win this weekend, the Clemson Tigers baseball team will secure the Atlantic Divison in the ACC. The Tigers currently have the 4th best odds to win the College World Series at (+1000).

• May 6, 2024: University of South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer has declared LaNorris Sellers the starting quarterback of the Gamecocks out of spring camp. The Gamecocks win total is set at 5.5, and they are (+10000) to win the SEC Title game.

• April 27, 2024: Former South Carolina football players Spencer Rattler and Xavier Legette were selected in the 2024 NFL Draft. Legette was drafted in the first round by the Carolina Panthers and is currently (+5000) to win Offensive Rookie of the Year.

• December 7, 2023: DraftKings introduces Pick6, a peer-to-peer fantasy sports game, starting in six states, including South Carolina. It involves predicting "more or less" stats for 2 to 6 players from different teams in NFL and NBA contests. The product plans to expand to other sports and states in the coming year.

• June 7, 2023: Lottery games like $1 Wild Luck and $2 Crazy Luck achieve excellent results in South Carolina, contributing to robust state lottery operations. Launched in February, these games have generated over $5.2 million in sales, with 23,000 unique users purchasing 335,000 tickets online.

In-person sports betting sites and locations

Even if sports betting were legalized tomorrow in South Carolina, there would be no places for customers to place retail wagers. The Palmetto State does not house any commercial or tribal casinos, which means the closest retail betting facility for SC residents is actually in North Carolina.

Based on a few proposed sports betting bills, lawmakers seem to focus more on legalizing mobile betting. This could mean that even if a bill does get passed, the state may decide to keep it strictly mobile and ignore the idea of building commercial casinos to house sportsbooks.

Sports betting in neighboring states

Much like South Carolina, sports betting in Georgia remains illegal despite countless bills on the topic being introduced during legislative sessions. This leaves North Carolina as the lone surrounding state that South Carolina residents can travel to and find legal sports wagering.

In order to find out more about why Georgia still doesn’t have a sports betting bill or what betting options are available in North Carolina, you can click on the state name in the box underneath this section.

What’s next for SC betting apps?

Every year since 2019, South Carolina has introduced at least one sports betting bill, and that trend is likely to continue in 2024. Support for each bill seems to be growing, but getting it passed by the committee has remained the biggest obstacle.

Each of these bills does seem to include the legalization of mobile sports betting, so if one can make it past the committee and gets signed into law, then brand name operators like DraftKings and FanDuel should be able to apply for a license shortly afterward.

Potential sports betting revenue impact on South Carolina's economy

Until South Carolina passes a sports betting bill, we will have no information regarding the state's handle, revenue, and tax income. Most states without legal sports betting have, at the very least, created a gambling research committee that studies how profitable the state could be with sports betting. South Carolina did attempt to form one of these groups in 2019 through SJR 71, but this resolution died after it was read for the first time in committee.

With no government-backed group to delve into the research and create studies, it is hard even to assume how the state would do in terms of sports betting revenue on a consistent basis. One could compare how other surrounding states with legal sports betting have done. Still, the accuracy of those comparisons is not very high since South Carolina’s betting market could be drastically different.

However, for the sake of this article, we will compare South Carolina to the closest state in terms of the estimated population that offers legal sports betting, Colorado. It did not take long for CO to pass a gambling bill, and they have since welcomed a wide range of operators, leading to them making over $16 billion in handle and $1.14 billion in revenue since legalizing the market.